BARC suspends news channels' weekly television ratings for three months

As the scam of Television Rating Points (TRP) is unfolding, the Broadcast Audience Research Council (BARC) on Thursday announced it would temporarily suspend weekly ratings of news channels.

The agency said it would "review and augment the current standards of measuring and reporting the data of niche genres, to improve their statistical robustness and to significantly hamper the potential attempts of infiltrating the panel homes".

This will result in a "pause" for up to 12 weeks in the weekly ratings, an official statement by BARC said.

However, the agency would continue to release "weekly audience estimates for the genre of news by state and language"

The development comes as Republic TV, a national news channel, along with two local channels is being probed upon for rigging the ratings to earn revenues from advertisements.

Fakt Marathi and Box Cinema are the two other channels that are being investigated for foul play by the investigation officials.

At least five people have been arrested so far in connection with the scam by the Mumbai Police which unveiled it earlier this month.

The police has also interrogated Republic TV's executives with regard to the case.